DD1 is 4 and DD2 is nearly 2. DD2 is breastfed but I'm ready to stop or at least cut down. Both have slept through the night on occasion but neither consistently. I'm a single mum after me and my husband separated when DD2 was 7 months. DD1 was taken it pretty hard and I've let her come in to my bed for reassurance which is something she never did previously, but because she was so anxious and upset I was happy to do this. DD2 has pretty much always co-slept for at least part of the night.
I want to do something to change this now. It's just getting ridiculous. Ive been trying to get them to sleep for the past 2 hours and they're both still awake. It's always worse when they come back from their dad and they were with him last night, but even so, I don't think I'm doing them any favours by having them rely on me to get them to sleep. The annoying thing is that they'll sleep perfectly well for their Dad. And when they stay with my parents DD2 pretty much always sleeps through the night. They share a bedroom and that makes it difficult as they often wake each other up. Sometimes they're okay going to sleep but by the morning most days they're both in my bed.
I've never wanted to do CIO. I've always had a far more gentle possibly pandering approach. But I'm at the point where I feel like I'm not giving them the skills they need.
Any ideas for what I can do to help them sleep better? Especially considering they share a bedroom.